Smell the Flowers

Ralph Waldo Emerson,  the American essayist, poet, and philosopher, once said, ” Many eyes look through the meadows, but few see the flowers.”

When I first read this quote I immediately connected it to the way I teach both with the BPSOP, and also in my ‘ Stretching your Frame of Mind’ workshops I teach all over the place. From China to Singapore, to most of the countries in Europe, to NY, to LA, to San Miguel de Alende to Cuba and even back home in Houston.

Photographers in general have a tendency to look only at the end of the road and not how they got there in the first place. What it took from where they started to what it took to get them there…to the end. In other words the parts that make up the hole.

This, in part, is the essence behind the Psychology of Gestalt. In order for a photo to stand the test of time it need to bring a lot to the table. Layers of interest I call them, and the more layers you have from the beginning to the end, the start to the finish the better chance it has to hang on your wall, a.k.a., wall hangers.

As Bob Marley said, “Some people feel the rain while others just get wet”. In other words, don’t just bring your camera up to your eyes and ‘take’ a picture, think about how you want the finished image to look, how you want it lit, what you want to include, and what you want to leave out. When you’re satisfied, then bring the camera up to your eyes and ‘make’ a picture of what you saw in your mind. I call it pre-visualization.

If you’re a golfer, you know what it takes to hit the ball straight, not necessarily far, just straight: your feet, hands, hips, shoulders, head, etc. That’s a hell of a lot to keep track of. In photography, fortunately you don’t have quite that many to think about, to shoot that elusive ‘Wall Hanger’ but I assure you the number is closer than you might think.

So, don’t narrow your vision to only see the end, keep it wide open take your time and smell the flowers on the way.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

So much Visual Tension

This is one of my favorite posts to write on. Whether intentionally or just stumbling upon something that either I’ve heard or read in various publications or when I’m searching Social Media looking for ideas to write my posts on.

I’ve been doing this, teaching workshops both in person with my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” classes and with the BPSOP, since 1983.

I would strongly suggest you read “The f64 Group, as it talks about the early careers of some of the most famous photographers there ever was. One of these was Edward Weston. He once said, “Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph it.”

When I’m conducting my workshops and walking around with either one or a few students, we are looking for things that have Visual Tension or represents one of the basic elements of Visual Design.

When I see something that sticks out from it’s environment, it’s like a magnet drawing me in with it’s energy. It could be anything, dappled light on a wall, objects that create one of the basic shapes: triangles, squares, circles, and rectangles, or a person about to create the “Decisive Moment”, by altering their surroundings.

My job as their teacher is to point these occurrences out so that they can spend time creating their own POV. I love this part, watching them going about their creative business each one looking for that elusive ‘wall hanger’.

So, my fellow photographers, go out and look for those things that excite you. If it excite you, there’s a very good chance that it will excite others.  My only advice is to make sure they know what they’re looking at.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. watch for any upcoming workshops. They fill fast so they are not up on my blog for very long.

JoeB

I’ve always been a fan of the Beetles every since they walked off that plane landing in the good old USA in 1964. That was sixty-four years ago, so I’m not sure how many of you out there saw it happening in real time like I did!!!

Let me digress,

I’ve been writing a blog since 2011 and a post has come out every six days since then!!

Getting my ideas for these posts come in all flavors: in my sleep when I wake up and write the idea down, watching a movie or TV show, eating my meals when I envision them while swirling around my Campbell’s Chicken Noodle soup, or spelling them in my alphabet cereal, or while listening to music in my car. This particular posts came to me while listening to Paul McCartney sing, “Let it Be“.

I teach an online classes with the BPSOP, and I also conduct my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops all over the (perfectly round) planet.

When walking around with one of the photographers during one of my workshops I’m always noticing that they will tend to raise their camera off their chest or hung over their shoulder, bring it up to their eye, and in one innocuous movement click the shutter…and as a result, over-process the hell out of it later while sitting in front of a computer.

I will tell them to not worry about the first shot being the one, you know the one that will go on the wall, a.k.a., wall hanger. I’m not saying that the first one couldn’t be ‘the one’, what I’m saying is that Vegas wouldn’t take those odds. That said, there is one exception, and that is if you’re street shooting and you have that one in a hundred, or thousand, or million chance of getting it, but that’s better than no chance; as in the submitted photo above.

Case in point, I was walking down one of the narrow streets in Shanghai, China and out of my left eye, my right eye in the viewfinder looking straight ahead, I saw this scary somewhat sinister looking man, his gaze fixed on what I was doing, the thought quickly racing through my mind that I could disappear without a trace in a country of over one a half billion people.

I had a 17-20mm lens on and was aiming the camera down the street panning the crowd for a shot, so he didn’t realize that he was my subject. In the proverbial blink of an eye I took the shot, and in the next blink of the (same) eye he had moved out of the light lost in a sea of Chinese.

Except for that, my chances of one of those ‘OMG’ shots lies somewhere in the second, third, fourth, or even fifth adjustment or variation.

So, my fellow photographers, what happens is that you take that first go at it (British talk) and then kill it with over-processing to make it appear as if you had spend time on it. In my respectful opinion it never works. I have seen photos that look like they just came out of a Disney Movie…and then there’s always AI to really f**ck it up.

Take your time, smell the roses and as Bob Marley once said, “Some people feel the rain while others just get wet.”

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog, or follow me on FB. Come shoot with me sometime.

“And there was light”.

Trust me when I say that I’m very far from being a religious person, but the other day I was listening to a piece on PBS and the book of Genesis was being quoted. I can’t remember exactly what the gist of the conversation was, but the moment this phrase was said, my ears perked up. The direct quote from Genesis 1:3 is,…then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

My ears picked up because I remembered walking back to my hotel in Paris during my workshop there from what was a “bust” as far as the afternoon light was concerned. As you can see in the above photo that it was about as dark gray (and threatening rain) as it gets especially so close to sunset.

I tell my online class with the BPSOP, and my fellow photographers that join me in one of my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops to always be ready because you just never know when something will happen. As always, I still had my camera attached to my tripod and both were resting comfortably on my shoulder. I was asking no one in particular if I could just have a minute of light, and at that moment, as I always do, I was looking all around me from front to back. As I turned around the sun came out for a matter of seconds, and I was able to capture this photo. Needless to say it made my afternoon.

I guess somebody up there likes me!!!

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my upcoming workshops at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

What do you see?

Check out my new workshop on the six concepts in the Psychology of Gestalt: Gestalt Workshop link

Elliott Erwitt was a famous street photographer that was born in Paris, and moved to New Your in 1948. BTW, I loved his work and his approach to shooting in the streets.

He once said, “Photography is an art of observation. It has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them”.

For s long as I’ve been shooting and teaching classes with the BPSOP and conducting my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind Workshops” This quote has been my mantra.

I’ve worked with people that were right brained and people that were left brained, and I can tell you the incredible difference between these two photographers.

Left brained photographers will see a tree and nothing more. They’re analytical, structured, and naturally wired to ask questions, gather facts and want to know things that are provable.

In other words they want to know why the tree is there, where did it come from, what species is it, etc.

The right brained photographers are visual and creative…with a less organized way of thinking. They see the tree, but they also see the texture of the bark, the shape of the leaves, the way the leaves form a pattern, the negative space between the leaves, and the color of the leaves.

So, my fellow photographers, are you right or left brained?

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and follow me on Instagram: www.instgram.com/barabanjoe. Come shoot with me sometime, and BTW, I’m right brained.

JoeB

Close enough?

Check out my new workshop on the six concepts in the Psychology of Gestalt: Gestalt Workshop link

In this category although I always quote an artist, I don’t always quote a photographer. I’ll often quote someone like Kenny Rogers, or Marcel Proust because what they had to say fits in with I often say both in my online class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around our planet.

Robert Capa was a well known war photographer and photo-journalist. who documented five different wars. In 1947 he co-founded Magnum ( a international free-lance photographic agency) along with photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson. He once said, “If you’re photos aren’t good enough, then you’re not close enough”.

There’s been discussions concerning this quote, and many think that he was referring to being up close and personal to the wars in which he photographed and incidentally, he was in the first wave of soldiers that hit Omaha Beach.

I’ve followed his work for some time, and to me his quote goes well beyond the photos he took during those five wars.

All my fellow photographers that I’ve helped since 1983 when I first started sharing my knowledge have come to known my “Personal Pearls of Wisdom”. One of them is “get up close and personal”. What I mean is that so many photographers will see a subject and without moving start shooting; this might be five feet away or twenty. They will keep at a distance which usually means that there’s not a lot of depth that can be created by anchoring the subject in the foreground while creating layers of interest.

I’ve found that many photographers are easily intimidated and are not comfortable with being close to either a person or even an inanimate subject . Nor are they willing to change their POV like getting on their knees to compose a photo. Therefore, they’re more at ease with keeping their distance and that falls under another Pearl of Wisdom I call “make don’t take pictures”.

So, the next time you’re out and about with your camera and see an interesting photo opportunity, think about what Robert Capa said. You just might find it to be true in your approach to picture taking, and if it is, just for once try to do it his way.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Keep an eye out for my upcoming workshops at the top of this blog. They don’t sty up very long is why you probably never see them. Plese keep looking!! Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

I saw a Ferris wheel, but what else did I see?

Most of you will know Johnathon Swift as the guy that wrote Gulliver’s Travels; one of the few books I read more than once. Among a much smaller crowd, he’s known for a quote he said a long time ago. A quote I have read once or twice in the past forty years as an advertising, editorial,  and corporate photographer. He said, ” Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others”.

As I often tell my fellow photographers that sign up for my online classes with the BPSOP, or the ones that shoot with me in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, use the Elements of Visual Design to help you “see past your first impressions”. If it’s a tree, then what else is it? It’s an object made up of Texture, Patterns, Form (when side lit) Shape, and most important Line. It’s about the Negative Space between the branches that are defining those leaves and branches.

Depending on the time of day, it’s about the shadow the tree creates. When shot early in the morning or late in the day when the sun is gone the tree becomes a two-dimensional silhouette against a brighter sky. It’s all these things that most people can’t see…why, because they just don’t know how to see… with the right vision.

In the above photo, the left side of my brain, the analytical side, saw a Ferris Wheel. The right side, the creative side saw motion, a circle, a triangle, patterns, lines, light, and color.

Once you learn how to see with this vision, a whole new set of photo opportunities will be at your disposal. no longer will you say that when you went out shooting, you just didn’t see anything interesting. There’s ALWAYS something interesting to shoot.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Be sure to check out  my workshop schedule, and come shoot with me.

JoeB

Once again, Ansel Adams pops into the spotlight. Over the years I have taught online at the BPSOP, and have conducted my workshops all over the world. During these years I have quoted this very famous photographer several times. If you’re interested you can just click on “My Favorite Quotes” and scroll through them.

Well, I have another one that really fits the bill!

Ansel once said to his assistant John Sexton, “The harder you work, the luckier you get”.

First of all, anyone can click the shutter on their camera. It’s just about the easiest thing you can do when taking pictures. The hard part is everything else, and that’s the part that takes work.

Over the years, I have walked the Medieval Streets in Europe, country roads in the US and the Malecon in Havana with students in one of my workshops. I have found that most, but not all, will walk by something interesting stop for a moment and ‘take’ a picture of it.

I can tell you from over fifty years of experience shooting on my and teaching for forty years that unless you’re street shooting and looking to stop some sort of action that’s whizzing by you, or you’re whizzing by it, or it’s stopped for just a moment, the odds of you coming home with a wall hanger are slim to none. Of course that depends on what you consider a wall hanger.

But that’s another story.

Wall Hangers rarely come from ‘taking’ pictures. They come from ‘making pictures’. Bob Marley once said, “Some people feel the rain while others just get wet” http://joebaraban.com/blog/my-favorite-quotes-bob-marley/

It takes work, and a lot of it to “feel the rain”. But once you do, you’ll be ready, and as Eddie Adams once said, “When you get lucky, be ready”.

Visit my website at  www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my upcoming workshops at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime,

JoeB

I want to announce my next workshop “Autumn in France” to be next October 2nd. It will be in Bordeaux, Dordogne, and Toulouse. If you go to the top of my blog and click on the link, you can read the description. Join me for a great visual experience, seeing places that few people won’t ever be able to.

One of my favorite categories to write in is ‘My Favorite Quotes’. These are not quotes strictly by well-known photographers. These are quotes I have picked up over the years by artists of any kind.

From photographers, poets, authors, singers, actors, musicians, and yes, even a chemist, at one time or another they have said something that I can immediately relate to and have applied to my teaching people how to see.

Dr. John, one of my favorite musical artists once said in a song, “Right Place, Wrong Time”.  I often talk about this in both my online classes with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct.

What it means and should mean to photographers is that there are so many times that you’re at a location to shoot during the ‘Golden Hour’ where you would get the nice warm light, and for whatever reason…you don’t.

Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, here’s a link that describes it: http://joebaraban.com/blog/food-for-digital-thought-shooting-in-the-golden-hour/

You’re there at sunrise and it’s the first time you’ve been there. What you discover is that there are very tall buildings, or hills that are between you and the sun. By the time the sun comes up over these obstacles, the sun has been up for a long time and that warm luscious light creating long shadows has gone and in it’s place is harsh light with short shadows.

Or, you’re there at sunset and those same buildings or hills has blocked the sun and you have nothing worthwhile to shoot. Since you’re there anyway you go ahead and try to go home with something decent, but you know as well as I do that it just ain’t gonna happen.

So my fellow photographers, what’s the answer?  Well, there actually is one, but you have to have some time on your hand.

If you know you’re going to be at a location for two days, and have the time to look for potential photo ops. Use the internet to find out when sunrise and sunset are. You can find out not only the time, but where it will come up and go down. Take those readings and put them in your phone.

Go to several places that you either know about or have seen when putting the location in a search engine.

Stand where you see a place you would like to shoot and use a compass (you can add to your apps) to determine if you’re going to get early or late light.

All this is going to take more work, but the payoff will be well worth it. The best time for me is when the sun is about 15 to 20 degrees from the horizon either going up or going down…the Golden Hour.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on instagram.

You can also sign up for my six-month mentoring program. If you’re interested send me an email to joe@joebaraban.com

Here it is in one of my favorite tunes!

JoeB

14

No blue ribbons here.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a writer and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement in the mid 19th century. I’m not by any means a big lover and follower of quality literature and poetry, and not a follower of Transcendentalism, but what I remember reading about him was that he was a big supporter of individualism…and so am I. Only recently did I find a quote he said somewhere in the late 1800’s. It immediately stuck to me as it fits perfectly into the way I present my way of thinking to both my online classes with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet.

He once said, ” Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”. This really hit home to me a few weeks ago when I was asked to give a talk and show my work to a local camera club at their yearly show and dinner.

First, let me say that being a member of a local camera club has a lot of advantages. If you’re into the social aspects as in: meetings where you get together with people that share your love of photography, drink diet cokes and unsweetened ice tea while exchanging current trends, or enter into club competitions where the best photo is not always picked, then a camera club is the way to go….and can be a lot of fun. You can also take workshops given by other members…if you’re so inclined.

Having said that I’ve spoken at many camera clubs over the years and have judged several of their yearly competitions. At some point during my visit several of the members have pulled me aside and said that although they love my presentation, if they were to submit photo composed the way I compose, they would be made to stand in the corner and subsequently ridiculed in front of the entire membership.

Ok, maybe they didn’t say it exactly that way, but as far as the way I seen things, the truth is that my photos would never be accepted into their show; certainly not win any ribbons.

🙁

Here’s my standing reply to these few souls that have evidently lost their way, “Start your own camera club”.

These are the photographers that were given coloring books when they were young and were told to color inside of the lines. As a result, now, as grown-ups, they strictly adhere to all the rules of photography and woe be to those that deviate in any way.

I’m talking about the staunch supporters of the Rule of Thirds, never clipping the highlights, and the Leading in Rule, to name a few. They will never give up their life long beliefs nor have any of them ever been interested in my online classes or workshops…which is absolutely OK with me!!

Live by the rule, die by the rule seems to be their hidden agenda and mantra.

The few of my fellow photographers that want to venture out into the creative world where coloring outside the lines is the best way I know to taking photos “up a level”, and that stand out among others…then as Nike would say, “just do it”.

To be sure, I’m not saying to never follow the rules, or not join your local camera club. I’m saying to not live and die by those rules If you don’t believe in always following the rules, and following the same path as your camera club members, then don’t. Go your own way and blaze your own trail then maybe you can help others that feel the same as you (or more importantly don’t) get together and follow the path you’ve blazed.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram.  check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

I saw the light and the welder first, then moved the bankers into it.

One of my favorite quotes is actually the title to a famous country and western song entitled, “I saw the light”, sung by one of the true country legends, Hank Williams.  Not that I’m a die hard lover of country music or a religious person, but years ago whenever I was shooting on location, chasing and finding the light, I would sing a couple of verses to sort of celebrate my good fortune and timing.:

I saw the light, I saw the light
No more darkness, no more night
Now I’m so happy, no sorrow in sight
Praise the Lord, I saw the light.

If you’re interested, here’s Hank singing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtolv9kM1qk

Btw, my crew thought it was REALLY getting old!!!

The analogy I’m drawing is what I teach in my online class with the BPSOP, or in one of my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet.  I tell my fellow photographers that light is everything; you find the light and you’ll find the shot. The only exception is in photojournalism/street photography where capturing the moment/action can transcend great light and therefore be more important…every once in a while you can get both!

I’m always looking all around my environment and peripheral vision for that moment when I see the light hitting or falling on something. Light is so fleeting that once you see it, you have to act fast or you’ll lose it. Sometimes the light returns, as in a cloud moving across the sky, but I’ve found after forty-eight years of shooting that once it’s gone…baby it’s gone!!! Light will make the difference between going home empty handed or being less satisfied because of a gray day when you could have slept in.

When you do see it, while running towards it, you should also be thinking about how you’re going to use it. Sometimes there’s a subject or center of interest already in the light, and sometimes I look around for something to move into the light. The faster you can determine that the better your chances are of capturing it.

Are you going to side light, back light, front light? These questions need to be addressed and put in order of importance. In other words, try to light your subject from as many points of view as you can. I always try to start out backlighting or from the light in the ten or two position. Then I’ll look at my subject as it’s side lit. Finally and rarely will I front light anything…why?

Because when you front light, your subject will lose the third dimension, depth. The one exception is when the background behind your subject is dark, making it stand out.

Here’s what I saw when I see the light:

PausePlayPlayPrev|Next

Imagine me singing away when I’m seeing the light!!!

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and www.instagram.com/barabanjoe Check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me and we’ll sing in two-part harmony.

JoeB

Ok, you’re asking yourself what Kenny Rodgers (a well-known CW singer from the past) might have said that has stuck with me and became a euphemism that applies to my Photography. In the song “The Gambler”, Kenny Rodgers sang these lyrics:

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, know when to run. I’ve always loved those words, and I’ve actually found myself singing them (discretely) when out shooting. Ok, let me finally explain:

In my online class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, I’m constantly asked when do I walk away from taking a photo? How do I know when it’s not working the way I thought it would? Do I just take the photo anyway and try to fix it later? This last question really gets me!!!!

Here’s what I have to say on this subject:

For me, it doesn’t take very long for me to fold em. For one thing I “Pre-visualize”  Over the years I’ve managed to create an imaginary 2X3 rectangle right behind my eyes. When I’m either walking the streets or setting up an actual photo. I look through this rectangle and try to visualize the composition before I ever bring the camera up to my eye. It’s an easy exercise and one all my fellow photographers should at least try.

This exercise will eliminate a lot of time and energy I go through in composing a photo. To add to this exercise is a critical step in my thought process. Determining the direction of the light. If the light isn’t right, I’ll walk away sooner. If I can’t get the light to work for me, I’ll run away.

So now, the light is right and I’ve brought the camera up (horizontally) to my eyes. I look for the balance between the Negative and Positive space and if it isn’t feeling right within a few seconds I’ll try it as a vertical. I’ll look around for props or people I can add. I’m not the type of photographer that won’t change or move something to create a better photo. I’m out “making pictures”, not taking them. Finally, I’ll also ask someone if he or she would be in my photo.

If none of this works, I won’t spend any more time on it…why? Because as I’m always telling those students that stay with it too long, “The best photo you’ve ever taken may well be your next one, and that could be right around the corner”.

Don’t feel like you have to stay with it and take something as so many photographers do…just to be taking a picture. And don’t think about fixing it later in front of a computer. That’s not going to make you a stronger photographer. However, it will make you a better computer artist…if that’s your cup of tea.

In the above photo, I was just about ready to fold em. It just wasn’t doing anything for me. Then I saw the boy and his mom walking down the pier. I asked if I could put him in my photo. Then, I knew to hold em.

Btw, if you’ve never heard this song, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDwCMxPwJ_4

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog.

JoeB

My Dada photo

I always think that I was fortunate to not have studied photography but to have studied art instead.  That’s not to say Photography isn’t art because I’ve been preaching to my fellow photographers that take my online class with the BPSOP, and my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, that a camera on a tripod is just the same as a blank canvas on an easel.

I still consider myself an artist, I just changed the medium from a paintbrush, pastels,  and colored pencils to a camera. When I did it was “instant gratification”, instead of the hours and sometimes days or weeks finishing a drawing or painting.

When I got my first camera and looked into the viewfinder, I saw a rectangle. Since we perceive and process information in a rectangle (3:2 aspect ratio), I simply applied everything I had learned from studying all the elements of visual design in my drawing and painting classes to Art History and Color Theory into my newfound passion….photography.

Throughout my education in Art, I studied its history from the Italian Renaissance painters of the 15th and 16th century to the Impressionists, Post Impressionists, to the 20th-century modern artists…my favorite being the very founder of abstract art, Wassily Kandinsky.

Although Dadaism and Surrealism were not my favorite movements, there was one painter I liked, Man Ray. I tolerated his paintings, but what I enjoyed was some of his photography. Over the years I’ve occasionally seen his work in museums and galleries and one day, not having anything to do, I googled him up and found one of his quotes that I immediately related to.

Man Ray once said, “Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask ‘how’, while others of a more curious nature will ask ‘why’. Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information”.

I could relate to this because on a couple of occasions when I’ve been talking to one of my students, I was told that I could explain the ‘how’, but what they liked most was that I could also explain the ‘why’. In other words, I could show them how to ‘make’ stronger images, but then I could explain why they were.

One of my online classes is all about the psychology of Gestalt. In this class, I talk about the fact that humans rely on the perception of the environment that surrounds them. Visual input is a part of our everyday life, and as photographers, it’s our prime objective to present this visual information in a way that takes control of what the viewer sees when looking at our imagery.

This is where the elements of visual design and composition come into play. These elements have been a part of art since the beginning, and knowing how to use these elements when creating your photos will always answer the ‘why’. Once you’ve put these elements on what I call my ‘Artist Palette’, it enables you to see what others can’t and this has always been the inspiration that has kept me going…after fifty years of taking pictures; the same inspiration my students walk away with.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out the workshops I offer at the top of this blog. Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barabanjoe/Come shoot with me sometime, and we’ll talk about the how and the why.

JoeB

  I’ve been trying now for a while today, trying to locate the author of one of my favorite quotes, “Don’t let the low hanging fruit keep you from your goal”.

Nowhere on the information highway does it mention it. However, I did find an article that in a matter of speaking, is a metaphor that fits perfectly.

“Pick the low-hanging fruit first”?

In business, going for the easiest win first can mean a quick payoff, even if the fruits of your labor are, well, a bit misshapen. But according to 30-year apple-picking veteran Henry Rueda, starting with “low-hanging fruit” is a load of horse apples. Rueda says it’s common practice to pick trees from top to bottom so that the sacks of apples that pickers carry around their necks grow heavier as they work downward.

To pick the low-hanging fruit first would mean climbing against gravity with an increasingly heavy load—and also preventing heavily-shaded fruit from ripening. “Fruit that is high up, exposed to the sun, ripens the fastest,” adds USDA plant breeder Gennaro Fazio. “You want to pick the low-hanging fruit last, so it has more time to develop.” Using this phrase can make you look less than intelligent even though it’s one of the most common sayings.

So, my fellow photographers, what the hell does this have to do with the price of beans, a.k.a. photography?

In my online class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, I work on getting people to take a ‘Master’ shot first, then segue it to other ways to look at the same subject. In other words, you want to work your way down from the top.

The  Master shot will help you stir up those creative juices; think of it as the oil to get your motor running. Once you do, then you can look at all the lower hanging fruit. One reason that immediately comes to mind is the quality of the light.

It would make sense that the subject near or at the top is going to have the brightest light on it. If you spend time at the bottom, you’re going to miss the light at the top. Chances are that there will also be light at the bottom so when you come back to it, it might be the softer, warmer light that memories are made of. Above all, depending on where you put it in relation to your subject, will make the difference between a potential wall hanger or a photo destined to fall on the cutting room floor….as in deleted!

Shooting the low-hanging subjects will (maybe) give you the quick payoff…instant gratification, but it won’t fill your basket (compact flash card) with choices. It’s the choices that will give you the best chance to go home with a photo you can put over your fireplace.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out any upcoming workshops. Come shoot with me sometime. Follow me on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/barabanjoe/

JoeB

I don’t always Walk on By

Ok, so my guess is that you’ve never heard of this guy. Well, it would take two things that would help…being old and loving CW music…Country and Western, that is!

I qualify for one of them, maybe both. I’m old enough to know Leroy’s rendition (Dione Warwick made it famous). I’m not a fan of current CW music because to my ear it all sounds the same. However, I do love the music from the forties and fifties.

The other day I had on a classic Country and Western CD, and this song came up. When it did, I immediately thought of what I ‘preach’ to my students that take my online classes with the BPSOP and those that come with me on one of my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I have been conducting since 1983.

The title of the song is, Walk on By and the reason why I identify it to my teaching is that I’m invariably being told by one of my fellow photographers that even though they can’t seem to create a good composition, they go ahead and shoot it anyway.

Personally, I can’t think of a worse (photographically)  decision…if your goal is to become a stronger shooter. If you’re not happy with your photo, then skip it…Walk on by. The best photo you’ve ever taken could very well be your next one, and it could be waiting for you right around the corner.

In the old days when you were shooting film, and you had to pay not only for the film but the processing as well, you might have given it a second thought. Unfortunately, in the digital age, you can shoot as much as you like and not worry about the cost.

I say cost in a monetary sense. The cost to your ability to pick and choose based on the quality of the subject matter and the following composition is priceless. It’s hurting you far more than you can imagine.

Give this some Digital Thought the next time you’re out shooting. If it doesn’t feel right, then it’s probably not….Walk on By and think of this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QlqQA8CyjE

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this post. Come shoot with me sometime.

https://www.instagram.com/barabanjoe/

JoeB

This is what I waned to see

We recently went to the Van Gogh exhibit here in Houston, and there were several of his quotes written on the walls. One, in particular, struck me as the way I not only teach but the way I personally approach photography.

In my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct all over the place, and in my online classes with the BPSOP, I encourage my students to realize that we’re artists. We have chosen the camera as our medium. A camera on a tripod is just the same as a blank canvas on an easel.

My personal approach is that I rarely see things as they are, rather as I’d like them to be.  I see things in my mind, and if I can see them there, I can usually create them in the camera.

Van Gogh said, “I dream of painting, and then I paint my dreams”. I’ll walk up to some location/photo op and not necessarily see what’s there. In other words, based on my thought process, I have no problem moving things around in my composition to see what I want. Of course, this is predicated on whatever permissions I need to get ahead of time.  If I need another one of those chairs that will introduce another shape or color, then I’ll move it. Conversely, if I need to simplify my composition, then I’ll take one out.

Photography, unlike painting, is the Art of Subtraction. When you use a brush on a blank canvas, you add subject matter until you get a finished work of art. In photography, you take away subject matter until you arrive at a finished work of art.

In my fifty-two-year-plus career, there have been many times when I was about to start on a project or leave for a destination I had pre-scouted before the start of my workshop,  and the night before I dreamed of how I wanted to arrange my composition.

So, my fellow photographers, think about the artist inside you. Don’t just go around photographing what you only see, but also what you’d like to see. Don’t follow the path well-traveled, start a new one and be the first one to go down it. When you do, think about coloring outside the lines.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out any workshops I may have coming up. Come shoot with me sometime.

https://www.instagram.com/barabanjoe/

JoeB

Shooting right into the sun at sunrise is about energy.

Ever since I started teaching workshops, back in 1983, I’ve collected quotes written by various artists. Whether they were photographers, painters, writers, musicians are of no relevance. The important thing to me is that they are artists, and at the top of their game in their respective fields.; of course, the quote has to deal with some area that I’m interested in.

Years ago while studying a body of work by Ansel Adams, I came across a quote he said that has stuck with me all these years, and one I mention in my online class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet. Ansel Adams said, “There are no rules for good pictures, there are just good pictures”.

What makes this quote so important to me is that I’m always defending it to my fellow photographers. If I had a dollar for every time a student told me that he was taught that shooting into the sun is a bad thing, or practice the Rule of Thirds, or the Leading in Rule (always have your subject walking into the frame), or how about this one….stay away from the color red, it’s too hard to photograph (who in the world said that?), I’d be on my Island right now. I’d be sitting on a chaise lounge on my beach, waiting for another blue and frothy drink to be brought to me; a drink with an umbrella hanging perilously down from one side.

Now I’m not suggesting that you don’t know what these rules are, as it’s important to know them. I’m suggesting that as soon as you know them…forget them. That is unless you want to be taken down the one-way road to mediocrity.

So my fellow photographers, what constitutes a good photo? Well, if you’ve been following my posts, you would remember a category I called “did it do it”. On my list is concepts that I think make a good photo. At least they do for me, and I’ve thought about this list for most of the fifty-three years I’ve been a photographer.

I can tell you from years of experience, the students of mine that stop listening to people who lived and died by these silly rules and started shooting what felt and looked good never looked back. As I’ve always told my kids, “Color Outside the Lines”.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule.

https://www.instagram.com/barabanjoe/

JoeB

Waiting paid off

Edward Steichen was one of the early photographers that did so much to transform photography into an art form. His images were always in his newly created magazine called Camera Works. Which incidentally
I have several original issues.

A prolific photographer who was so influential in changing the way the people in that era thought of photography as more abstract than realistic.

One of his quotes has always been one that I have passed on to my online classes with the BPSOP, and also in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops. He once said, “Always be ready for the unexpected to happen.”

Just how do you do that?

Well, there are many ways, but here are five that I’m always thinking about when I’m out ‘street shooting’.

1) In my workshops we invariably are shooting in the middle of the day, a lot of time in narrow streets in some small village. Half of the street might be in shadow, and the other in full sun. Regardless of what side I’m on, I will shoot several exposures to get the one I want and set that reading in my camera…that’s set on manual. That way, I’ll be spot on when something unexpected happens. I wouldn’t want to have a reading based on the full sun when whatever happens, happens on the shady side and I’m too far away to help later in post-processing.

2) One of the things I’m constantly seeing when I’m walking down the street with a fellow photographer is that he/she almost always just looks straight ahead. What that means is that person only sees twenty-five percent of the possible photo ops that are taking place all around. If something does happen and he only sees it in his peripheral vision, by the time he can look at it and react, whatever it was is long gone.

3) Whatever you do, don’t keep your camera in a pouch on your waist, backpack, or camera bag. When you get to your desired location, decide what lens you want to use FIRST and put it on.  Whatever you do, don’t decide when whatever it is that you’re excited about is happening. That might open an entirely different can of worms…like feeling rushed and drop something you didn’t want to drop.

Having said that, if the location is one that might offer a landscape, or something that isn’t constantly changing, you have the opportunity to look at it (and shoot) with a different focal length lens. Of course, that depends on how much of that really good light you have left.

4) Now that you settled in with the lens you want, keep your ears and nose open to noises that might offer a photo op. For instance laughter, the smell of hotdogs, or pizza, sounds of the city, as in construction noises, commotion, etc. I have often followed those noises leading to a ‘keeper’.

5) Pay attention to any action and try to anticipate the same action that would happen again. For example, the photo I’ve shown above. I saw the wonderful late light hitting an intersection and people walking through it. Because of where I was standing the light was completely unexpected, and I just knew that it was going to be the place to stand.

I got my exposure set as far as what shutter speed/aperture combination  I wanted and took a few exposures to get it to where I wanted it…doing all of this in the camera instead of in front of a computer.

I waited and waited and after fifteen minutes this woman came walking down the street. It was a great photo op and because I was ready for something, I was excited but not to the point of rushing my one or two exposures before she was out of the light.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot the unexpected with me sometime.

https://www.instagram.com/barabanjoe/

JoeB

I knew where to stand, when to stand there, and how long I had standing there.

Here’s a quote that I absolutely relate to, and in one form or another I’ve been preaching it to my online class with the BPSOP and my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops that I conduct around our planet for as long as I can remember. It was said by one of my all-time favorite photographers Ansel Adams. He once said, “A good photograph is knowing where to stand”.

One of the most common mistakes I see is when one of my fellow photographers is at a location, walks up to an object or a subject, takes the camera that’s dangling around his/her neck, and starts shooting. Oblivious to where the light is coming from, and the environment surrounding said object or subject.

Now I’m not saying that you can’t walk away with a good photo, I’m saying that the chances of walking away with a REALLY good photo greatly diminishes. If a good photo is enough to satisfy you, then I say to each his own and more power to you. If you’re looking to improve your chances of going home proud to have taken one of the best photos ever, then I suggest you adhere to a few steps that have been my line of thought for nearly fifty years of shooting.

First of all, and the most important step is knowing in what direction the light is coming from. Is your subject one that will look better if it’s side lit? Perhaps to show off the texture? Is part of your subject translucent where backlight will make it glow? Do you want it to be a silhouette? Do you want to emphasize the shadows? These are all possibilities that are front and center in my thought process.

Let me digress for a moment and interject this thought: If I’m walking around some city street looking to capture a moment in time, then that moment can transcend directional light; but to me, that’s the only time.

“In a perfect world” is a personal pearl of wisdom I mention from time to time. In this scenario, I’m talking about being able to scout a location before you actually go and shoot to determine where the light is coming from. If you’re like me, you like to shoot at sunrise and sunset when the sun is low on the horizon…the golden hour.

The last thing I would ever want to happen is to be at a location at sunrise when I should have been there at sunset, and vice-versa; or at a location that doesn’t get early morning light until mid-morning. Conversely, a location that loses the late afternoon light well before it’s time for me to start shooting.

For as long as this old mind can remember, I’ve been feeding in the latitude and longitude of any place in the world to find out where on the horizon the sun will rise or set.  Based on those readings, I use a hand-bearing compass called a Morin2000. This enables me to know exactly where the sun will come up and go down. If I’m able to scout the location ahead of time, I’ll know where to stand, when to stand there, and how long I have to stand there.

If scouting is not possible, I at least walk around and look for places to stand...in relation to the source of the light. Do I want to sidelight, backlight, or occasionally front light? After I make that decision, I can begin arranging the elements that will be in my final composition.

As far as the environment that surrounds my subject is concerned, I want to make sure it’s in sync. In other words, the relationship between the subject and what’s around it is of equal importance; especially the negative space that’s between them…defining them. I call it taking care of “the whole enchilada”.

The photo above was part of an advertising campaign for Pacific Bell where we went to four small towns (actual places) and set up a phone booth and photographed it. We arrived in Nameless, Tennessee the day before to scout the location, decide when to shoot it and where to put the phone booth. Without prior knowledge, this photo could not have been set up before the sun came up and taken moments after sunrise. It felt right!

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

As some of you might know and hopefully read, I have a category I call “my favorite quotes”. These are quotes I’ve picked up over my forty-four year career as an advertising, corporate, and editorial photographer. Some I’ve stumbled on by accident or by reading, and some I’ve been sent by friends who are always looking out for me.

These are not necessarily quotes by famous photographers, but quotes by well-known artists in their own right. Painters, musicians, poets, and writers all share a common thread, the ability to think, see and feel with both the left and right side of their brains. From Marcel Proust to Bo Diddley, and from Bob Marley to Claude Monet, these artists share a common bond…basically, the ability to make people feel good through each of their individual artistic mediums.

One of these quotes was written by Elliott Erwitt, an adverting, corporate, and editorial photographer who at the age of eighty-six is still making his art. He once said,” Photography is an art of observation. It has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them”.

In my online class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshop I conduct around the world, I tell my fellow photographers that once you start seeing past your first impressions, you’re pictures will take on a different, more pronounced look. A look that will keep the viewer an active participant, and as a result will stick around longer.

So many photographers just don’t spend the time looking. They all seem to be in a hurry and as a result, they miss out on the ‘good stuff’. I teach people in my online class with the PPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops how to incorporate the elements of visual design and composition into their imagery, and they walk away with what I call my Artist Palette that holds these elements.

I tell my fellow photographers that there are two ways to see things: with the left side of your brain and the right side. The left side is the analytical side and that’s what Erwitt’s message means when he says photography has little to do with the things you see.

The right side of your brain is the creative side. This is where the second part of Erwitt’s quote comes into play. He finishes the quote by saying it’s everything to do with the way you see them.

I had just checked into my hotel room and as usual, the first thing I do is look out the window. What I saw is the image shown above. It was a bridge, according to the left side of my brain. However, upon closer observation, the bridge transformed into several elements of Visual Design. Here are the elements that I saw: A Vanishing Point made up of two converging lines that moved the viewer across the frame and met at a point on the horizon. I saw shapes consisting of a beautiful triangle that the converging lines created, squares made by the trestles, rectangles made by the reflections of the trestles, and lots of diamonds. There was Negative Space that defined the trestles, and patterns created by the trestles themselves. Not to be missed is the Visual Tension created by showing the bridge and its reflection…and of course an arrowhead.

This is the way I saw the bridge.

JoeB

It was light and it was available

When I first started out in photography some forty-four years ago, I shot primarily Black and White. I worked for AP, UPI, and I was a Black Star photographer, a national photo syndicate. It was several years before I started working in color, and in that beginning period of time, all my favorite photographers shot black and white.

Among them were:Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dorthea Lange, Walker Evans, Ernst Haas, most of the photographers in my favorite photo book called The Family of Man” to name a few. Having said that, my all-time favorite photographer is W. Eugene Smith. His images speak to me like no others living or dead. As it happens, one of my all-time favorite quotes was said by him. He said, “Available light is any damn light that’s available.”

As I tell my online students with the BPSOP, and also in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, light is everything. You find the light and you’ll find the shot. I’ll often have a discussion with one of my fellow photographers (who insist that an on-camera flash is the way to go), that in my long career I’ve never, and I mean not once ever felt that I needed this kind of contrasty harsh, bluish, hot ancillary light to make good photos.

To digress a moment, don’t you just love it when someone a couple of rows down from you uses a flash to record what’s way down on the stage…and all he’s lighting up is the back of a few heads a couple of rows in front of him. I get a better shot with just the available light.

I’m mostly an available light photographer. I’ve always found a way to use whatever available light is around me when I thought it was needed. The problem is that photographers these days just don’t take the time to look around them for help that may very well be hitting them right in the face. Remember that if you can see it, you can take a picture of it…especially now in the digital age where cameras can record images in very low light.

Any damn light that’s available.

Even in situations where there just isn’t any actual sunlight, look for man-made light like a flashlight over on a table, or a desk lamp, or as in the photo above, a welding torch laying over against the bags of cement. I had him pick it up and make it the brightest flame he could. As I say, you just have to open your eyes and look around…somewhere lurking in the shadows is the answer to your problem.

You just gotta…Stretch Your Frame of Mind!!!

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

I had something to say

Gordon Parks was a well-known African-American photographer who broke the race barrier shooting for magazines such as Life and Vogue; he then went on to directing and screenwriting.

What struck me when I first read some of his thoughts was a quote he had once said, “If you don’t have anything to say, your photographs aren’t going to say much”.

When I’m critiquing images submitted to me in my online classes with the BPSOP, and during our daily critiques in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around our (round) planet, I can usually tell right off that the photo they took had no meaning. No real meaning because the photographer didn’t have anything to say.

This will usually occur when someone has taken instead of making a picture. I have seen it when a photo has been submitted for a critique in my online class, but more importantly when I’m walking around when one of my workshop participants.

I understand that these photographers want to take as many photos as they can since they’re in places where most people don’t ever get to see. However, I would rather take fewer images that say or mean something, just enjoying the experience, than bringing the cameras up to my eye because that’s what it’s there for.

It boils down to editing my photos before bringing up the camera or deleting them when sitting in front of a computer. For me, taking precious time to stop and ‘take a picture’, is just burning a lot of daylight.  After all, I figure that the best picture I will have ever taken up to then is the one just around the corner enveloped with beautiful late afternoon light.

Having said all this, there is something to making your family slide show last awhile. Describing your feeling at the time of conception in other words when you click the shutter, to the people that you bribed with dinner and wine, can take the place of the photo standing on its own conveying what you were thinking at the time you clicked the shutter.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, follow me on Instagram, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

I saw a fork, but what else did I see?

Here’s another of my favorite quotes, that may have been written long ago, but I’ll always remember it being sung by an old friend named Bo Diddley. The name of the song was, “You can’t judge a book by looking at the cover”.

In the early eighties, I was on the board of the Houston Art Director Club, and my job that year was to find and provide the entertainment for the year’s award show. I thought long and hard and was told to look up agencies that represented well-known artists. On the list of possibles that fit into my budget was Bo Diddley. I couldn’t believe it!!!

I called and we worked out the details and I couldn’t believe that Bo was actually going to perform for our gala. I picked him up at the airport, took him to lunch, and stayed with him the entire day right up to the time he went on. He was soooooo cool!!!

Ok, I might be digressing a tad, but there’s a method to my madness, and here’s how it applies to the present-day task of making pictures.

So many students that take my online class with the BPSOP, and the ones that attend my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshop will walk up to something and just start shooting…blindly so to speak. They just look at it with the left side of their brain and just see the obvious. If it’s a tree, then they just see a tree. If it’s railroad tracks, then that’s all they see. If it’s a fountain with a naked baby in it spitting water out of its mouth, then that’s all they see, and that’s how they judge it; by only looking at the cover.

When I look at a tree, I look at it with the right side of my brain…the creative side. I see the negative space that defines the branches, I see the texture provided by the bark and any shapes that might be hidden between the leaves. I move around it to see how the light may backlight the leaves, and look for the important shadows that are being created and laying on the ground.

If I’m looking at railroad tracks, I see patterns created by the ties, texture created by the rocks, and a Vanishing Point I can use to move the viewer around my composition. If I’m looking at a naked baby spitting water into the fountain it’s sitting in, I imagine the possibility of creating a silhouette with backlit water spewing out of his mouth.

My point is to not just walk up and judge your subject by looking at its cover. Open the book and reads what’s inside.

HEY BO DIDDLEY!!!!!

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog.

JoeB

  I get my ideas for all my posts from the strangest places, and I never know what is going to spark an idea. They can be from listening to a description of a photo submitted by one of my online students with the BPSOP, or from those that are taking one of my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind workshops during one of my daily critiques, while sleeping, or even watching an old movie.

This idea came from a conversation with some friends during the week of Passover when for the one-millionth time I watched The Ten Commandments. I’m not sure how many of you ever watched it, but it has been one of my all-time classics starring Yul Brynner and  Charlton Heston. I’ve seen it so many times that I know most of the dialogue and say it simultaneously with the characters; much to the chagrin of my wife.

The quote was said by Brynner playing Pharoah, aka Ramseys II. He said, ” So let it be written, so let it be done.”

What in the world does that have to do with photography, you’re asking yourself as you scratch your head!!!!

Okay, here you go…it’s amazing how many times one of my students tells me that he or she did something (in creating a photo) because they had read it in a book…so it had to be true. When possible I will ask them to take a screenshot of exactly what they read, and in what book they read it.

Here are just a couple of instances of what they showed me: They actually read it wrong, they took it completely out of context, it referring to a completely different genre so as not to compare apples to apples, it was written so long ago that the way it was then is no longer the way it is now, or last but not least…the writer didn’t know what he was talking about. This last part reminds me of an old saying, “You have a great typewriter so you must be a great writer.

I digress.

Don’t get me wrong, I read a lot on the ‘information highway’ for ideas and to do research of what I heard and didn’t know, so as to answer my student but I never trust just one person, and neither should you. There’s so much misinformation out there mainly because everyone thinks they are an expert in the field. Generally, with little or no experience in the area that they’re writing about.

There are some great articles on the internet written by some of the top photographers, but I always, and let me repeat, I always seek out affirmation; by reading as much as I can on a subject and making sure everyone is on the same page…so to speak!!!

BTW, I’ve been shooting, writing, and conducting workshops since 1983, and I know a little bit about it.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog, Shoot with me sometime.

If you’re still reading this and are interested, here’s the line:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4emcNAf5lY

JoeB

The buck always stops with me

When Harry S. Truman was president, he had a sign on his desk that said, “The buck stops here”. The phrase refers to the notion that the President has to make the decisions and accept the ultimate responsibility for those decisions. Truman received the sign as a gift from a prison warden who was also an avid poker player.

To digress for a moment, I grew up in KC Missouri, and one day our elementary class took a field trip to his library that’s in Independence, Missouri. He happened to be there and I actually shook hands with him.

So, what in the world does that have to do with photography???

For those new to my blog, I teach an online class with the BPSOP and I also conduct my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops around the planet. I work closely with photographers to get them to perceive and processes with the right side of their brain. I also show people to take matters into their own hands by using the elements of visual design and composition that they put on their Artist Palettes. 

Besides mastering all the elements on your palette, the three most important ways to take your level of photography “up a notch”, is to use your 15 Point Protection Plan, pay attention to the Border Patrol, and check those four corners.  If you’re diligent and make those a part of your thought process, you’ll be far better off. Conversely, if you go about your business that way you always have, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.

I’ve heard it all after teaching since 1983, including these remarks:

• I didn’t read that far into the manual
• I didn’t bring the right lens
• It’s not what the president of my camera club said to do
• I left my filter case at home
• I only brought one card, and it’s full
• I didn’t charge all my batteries before I left
• I trusted my camera to make the right exposure decision for me
• I didn’t know it was going to be out of focus
• I guess I should have used a tripod
• I forgot to set my alarm
• I was hungry so I ate first
• I’ll just fix it later

And last but certainly not least…it wasn’t my fault!!!!

We are just like television commercial or feature film directors. The difference is that we direct still photographs. We are all responsible for the content of our images. Only we can make ourselves look good or bad. Don’t rely on excuses to make your way through the art of photography. If you just study all the things I’ve laid out to you in this post, that even means clicking on all the links, you’ll become a stronger photographer.

So, my fellow photographers, remember that ‘The buck stops with you’.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

Pretty clear what he’s doing

I know some of you are asking yourself what in the world could a quote from this movie have anything to do with photography.

Well, I’m always on the lookout for anything that might make an interesting quote, especially if it’s based on something from my online classes with the BPSOP, or in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around our (more than likely) round planet.

I recently had a student enrolled in my part II class submit a photo that represented the current lesson Silhouettes. She submitted a shot of someone taking a picture that was in silhouette; actually one version and another almost identical.

As I always do, I put them up side by side so I could make a comparison and talk about it in a video that I create for every submission, and there was one small detail that was in one photo but not the other.

In one of the photos where the man had his camera up to his eye, there was a small area of negative space that was separating his arm from his body. It was clear that he was taking a picture.

In the other photo, there wasn’t any separation because that small area of negative space wasn’t there. As a result, the viewer would not be able to tell what the man was doing; it just wasn’t clear.

So my fellow photographers, whatever you’re trying to say in your photography no matter what the subject is, remember that you’re not going to be around to explain your thought process so it’s going to need to be…crystal clear!!

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

BTW, here’s where I got the quote, in case you don’t remember the scene: here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYqgHXFBWbg

I was lucky and I was ready.

Over the years, I’ve managed to mentally acquire several quotes made by famous people in the arts that apply to my approach in teaching with the BPSOP, an online school I’ve been with several years and my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet.

These are quotes that really hit home for me, and as a result, have made me a better photographer for the past now closing in on fifty-four years, and a better teacher for the last thirty-three of those years. This is one of my favorite quotes and the first of many posts in this category that will cause you to “stop, listen, and learn”. The first quote I want to talk about was said by Eddie Adams, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer. He once said, “When you get lucky, be ready”.

For years, that has been one of my many Mantras, and it couldn’t be truer. Over those same years, I’ve had dozens of my fellow photographers ask me how I can capture some of my photos that are exposed perfectly, especially since I take most of my pictures in the camera with little or no post-processing. I tell them that when I’m just walking down the street with a camera over my shoulder I always take a few generic photos just to get the exposure down. I’ll take several different exposures, usually based on a fast shutter speed, and pick the right combination of shadows and highlights. This is when the action is happening to fast to bracket. Now I’m ready and waiting to get lucky.

The above photo was taken in the Guggenheim Museum in New York. I was coming back down after seeing the Kandinsky exhibit ( my very favorite abstract artist) when I stopped to look at this work of art. While I was wondering what the artist’s message was, this man walked up and started reading about the painting.

I always have my little Lumix DMC-LX-7 with me and since photos are frowned upon above the lobby I had it in my pocket with my finger on the trigger (Texas talk) just in case something was to happen, and for a moment it did.

Since this guy couldn’t figure out what the artist was saying, he read for a couple of seconds and was gone…but not before I got off one shot.

Although there are many interpretations of this quote that apply to my style of shooting, this one sticks out the most as it seems to happen all the time to me.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this post. Come get lucky with me sometime.

JoeB

Feeling the rain

I keep saying how much I love writing for this category. Some of the quotes I write are written by photographers, while others were written by other types of artists; from singers, songwriters, and musicians to novelists and poets.

One of the quotes that have stayed with me over the years was said by Bob Marley. Yes, it’s the same guy you’re thinking of…the Reggae King from Jamaica. Bob Marley died from Cancer about thirty years ago at a hospital in Miami. He was only thirty-six, but his music and lyrics were filled with thoughts and ideas that I’ve found to be in keeping with the way I not only approach my online class with the BPSOP but in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet. One quote has always stuck with me. Bob said, “Some people feel the rain, while others just get wet”.

If you think about it, it can have a profound impact on the way we approach picture-taking. Ok, my students and fellow photographers might ask, what does that quote have to do with my ability to take pictures”?

Well, it’s all about the difference between taking and making pictures. It’s about the total immersion into your new found passion and craft. It’s about mastering light and understanding exposure. It’s about getting some dirt on your shirt or at least your knees. It’s about taking on the challenge of being a good photographer, not a good computer artist or digital technician. Let me explain further:

Determining the light and the direction it’s coming from before you raise your cameras up to their eye to me is the most important factor. Making your own decisions as to the correct exposure to use instead of letting the camera and lightroom do the work for you, scouting ahead of time and pre-visualizing your ideas in your mind then executing it, and spending more time than the “I came, I shot, I left”  frame of mind I find happening all the time, is about “Feeling the rain”.

The “I’ll fix it later” mentality that has come along with the digital era, has sucked the life and breath out of the right side of our brain; the creative side.  Why should I bracket when I can do it in lightroom? Why should I worry about the horizon line being straight when I can just use my straightening tool later in front of my computer? It just goes on and on, and this is all about “just getting wet”.

I’ve been following this train of thought since I first picked up a camera fifty-three years ago, in the days way before digital. It’s always been the love of my life, and I suppose that’s what has made it easier for me to caress it and “feel the rain”.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB